Single crystals of Ti2448 alloy (Ti-24Nb-4Zr-8Sn in wt.%) were grown successfully using an optical floating-zone furnace. Several kinds of resonant methods gave consistent Young's moduli of 27.1, 56.3 and 88.1 GPa and shear moduli of 34.8, 11.0 and 14.6 GPa for the < 1 0 0 >, < 1 1 0 > and < 1 1 1 > oriented single crystals, and C-11, C-12 and C-44 of 57.2, 36.1 and 35.9 GPa respectively. Uniaxial testing revealed asymmetrical elastic behaviors of the < 1 1 0 > crystals: tension caused elastic softening with a large reversible strain of similar to 4% and a stress plateau of similar to 250 MPa, whereas compression resulted in gradual elastic stiffening with much smaller reversible strain. The < 1 0 0 > crystals exhibited weak nonlinear elasticity with a large elastic strain of similar to 2.5% and a high strength, approaching similar to 20% and similar to 30% of its ideal shear and ideal tensile strength respectively. The (1 1 1) crystals showed linear elasticity with a small elastic strain of similar to 1%. These elastic deformation characteristics have been interpreted in terms of weakened atomic interactions against crystal distortion to low crystal symmetry under external applied stresses. These results are consistent with the properties of polycrystalline Ti2448, including high strength, low elastic modulus, large recoverable strain and weak strengthening effect due to grain refinement. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.